A core part of the editorial board’s role is to take positions that call on someone with power and authority – be it administrators, faculty, students or even the D.C. or federal government – to take a certain action that will benefit the GW community.

For Student Association elections, students have the power. And every year, the editorial board, which operates separately from the news team, endorses the candidates for SA president and vice president. We sit down with each of the candidates and ask them questions about their platforms, experience and vision for how to advocate for students. We make an endorsement based on how strong the candidate’s plans are, how clear their vision is and how feasible it would be to make their intended policies a reality.

Endorsing a candidate also serves as an effective point of reference for holding the president and vice president accountable down the line. When candidates the editorial board has endorsed get elected, we frequently write pieces alternately praising and criticizing them depending on how they are performing. For example, after Kate Carpenter, whom the previous editorial board endorsed, was elected SA vice president, the current editorial board wrote a piece holding up her work on expanding SafeRide as a paragon of how people in the SA should listen to student advocacy and then work with administrators to make beneficial policy happen. On the other hand, we critiqued the SA as a whole for acting immaturely around the issue of first-year senate seats.

The SA does important work. And despite its flaws, it is the official organ representing students’ interests to administrators. Running for SA president or vice president is not easy, and actually serving as president or VP is an oftentimes thankless job, involving long hours and stiff criticism. That is why it is worth putting every candidate through their paces and hearing them out. And that is why students should, no matter which candidate they support, no matter what they think about the SA, cast their ballots on Engage later this week.

We hope you take our endorsement into consideration when you decide how you’ll vote. We hope you learn something, that something you read here challenges your beliefs – or if you disagree with us, that reading our differing take helps you confirm where you stand.

The editorial board consists of Hatchet staff members and operates separately from the newsroom. This week’s staff editorial was written by opinions editor Andrew Sugrue and contributing opinions editor Shreeya Aranake based on discussions with culture editor Anna Boone, contributing sports editor Nuria Diaz, design editor Grace Miller and copy editor Jaden DiMauro.